Haley's Poker Blog

No bad beats, but still a poker blog... hence the anguish.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Just Conjecturin', Volume 20: The Carpenter Connection

It's been a while since I wrote about the Absolute Poker cheating scandal, but as I return from a brief hiatus today that seems like a good place to resume. Sometimes it's best to wait to see the effects that certain other releases of information have caused, and several factions connected to the whole that is Cereus continue their machinations behind the scenes. Some day, perhaps, I'll create a visual representation of all the companies involved, to better illustrate how the interlocking pieces of these entities have fit together over time.

Nothing so grandiose today, however. Just a specific publishing of information, the first of many on a handful of related topics. Remember the details behind the infamous "PotRipper" hand history, which I delved into back in Volume 12 of this perhaps neverending tale? That went into how Absolute Poker CEO Scott Tom was tied to one of the cheating accounts. But what I did not know at the time was that the other cheating account inextricably linked to the PotRipper affair was also tied to a very real person.

That account was "coffb@msn.com". I originally allowed some leeway concerning the address, thinking it perhaps a made-up or disused account, but that turned out to not be the case. As you can see from the below screen grab (reprised here from Conjecturin' Vol. 12), it was the coffb@msn.com account which carried the significantly low account number, 363. That low number suggested that this account dated from the very earliest days of AP, and was perhaps even used during testing before the site itself went live. Again, here were the key accounts hiding within CrazyMarco's PotRipper hand-history spreadsheet:

So who was this coffb@msn.com person? Other evidence and e-mails now in my possession confirm that the coffb@msn.com account belongs to someone heretofore unmentioned in connection to the AP scandal, Brian Coffey. Coffey is a minor AP shareholder, owning 30,000 shares, and has deep ties to the core owners and founders of the company. Coffey is a carpenter / general contractor by trade, and there will be more on him and his AP connections in future posts. A quick screen grab from a document showing Coffey's minor ownership stake, edited from a list of hundreds of other AP ownership entities:

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Before publishing this, I sent it off to Brian Coffey for comment, as I have been able to discern contact information for many AP individuals. Coffey's response follows, which I will reprint verbatim here, including his confirmation of his connection with this account. In addition, I have received statements from other people affiliated with AP regarding these matters; some of what Coffey states is confirmed by these other statements, while other areas remain a source of contradiction and continue to be investigated.

Coffey's response:

Hi Haley,

I have read your article and was the owner of that account. I have been a friend of Phil Tom, Scott's father, for about 25 years. I also oversaw some construction work for him in the past. A few years back I was hired by Scott to manage a construction project at his house in CR. I stayed at his house frequently, played online tournaments on AP, and did receive transfers of money into my account for some of the construction expenses. Later, I learned of the cheating scandal that happened at AP and that my account was apparently linked to the cheating.

I have never been happy with the explanations I got but I do know that both Scott and AJ had access to my computer and account. I understand that AJ confessed to being the cheater and that both he and Scott no longer work for the company.

I am very upset that my name was dragged into this mess and I'm sorry if I don't know much that can be of assistance.

Recent events have demonstrated to me that getting out the true and full stories of the AP and UB cheating scandals is going to entail significant legal effort, in addition to all the legwork of the past several years. Such is the nature of the beast. While I've resisted doing so for years, it's finally time to ask: Do you have some spare change to contribute to the cause? I'm going to be needing to mount both offensive and defensive legal efforts in the months ahead, and any contributions to cover these expenses are gratefully appreciated.

Who am I? A veteran writer/editor with decades of published writing credits, and at one time the Editor-in-Chief of PokerNews.com (though these days, "Tony G" is a dirty word to me). Currently continuing work on a book on the AP and UB scandals, to be published by Dimat Publishing in late 2012 or early 2013.